MINNEAPOLIS, MN — On the steps of Minneapolis City Hall, the Resist from Day One Coalition announced it will begin its protest of President-Elect Donald Trump and everything his administration stands for on Friday afternoon after the inauguration.
The Resist from Day One Coalition emcee and President of AFSCME 3800, Clerical Workers Union at the U of M, Cherrene Horazuk has been active for several years seeking to promote social, political, and economic justice. Horazuk says the group’s goal is to fight against what she calls hateful and discriminatory policies handed down by the Trump administration.
More than 70 organizations are working together on Friday’s March. It will consist of smaller movements starting at 2 p.m. and will finish with a large rally at 5 p.m. at Minneapolis City Hall.
The coalition held a press conference at City Hall Wednesday morning, featuring several speakers from groups organizing demonstrations, that will join the coalition’s rally in Minneapolis.
“I am not a stranger in my own homeland,“ Susana De León, an immigration lawyer, and Latina activist told members of the media.
Speaking first, De León said U.S. policies and interventions in other countries created unstable and dangerous situations forcing families to leave their homeland. She said immigration in the US is fiction and the country does not seek to help immigrants but seeks to make them available in a growing labor pool to dehumanize and exploit them.
De León concluded her remarks by announcing that the group “denounces the system of law. It is only regulating people’s movement, not helping them live their lives to their full potential. These systems of law must be dismantled.”
Gabriel Black Elk, a leader of the Black Snake Resistance March, told reporters, “Trump is the wrong representative for the people in America.”
Black Elk said his group would not support illegal policies pushed on the country and would seek justice including police accountability stating, “these murderous cops are getting away from it [accountability].” Black Elk concluded his remarks stating Hennepin County Officers terrorized peaceful protesters in North Dakota and the Dakota Access Pipeline must be stopped.
Luciano Balbuena, a worker, and a member of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha – Center of United Workers in Struggle (CTUL) told his story of mistreatment at the hands of his employer Kimco Cleaning Services. Through an interpreter, Balbuena explained that Trump and Trump supporter Home Depot – which is a Kimco client – support the poverty wages and lack of benefits that he has worked for in the past eight years. Balbuena states he makes $9.50 an hour and has had a $0.12 raise every year for the last 8 years he has been employed with Kimco. Balbuena and other Kimco employees will be going on strike in front of the Home Depot at the Quarry in Minneapolis starting Friday morning at 6 A.M.
Nick Faber, an elementary science teacher for St. Paul Public Schools, told members of the press teachers in St. Paul would ask the school board to make St. Paul Public Schools a sanctuary school. Faber explained that billionaires were stealing from public school students by refusing to pay taxes and CEO’s made a teacher’s yearly salary in one day. Faber then encouraged members of congress to reject the nomination of Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos who he states “spent her family fortune ruining the education system in Michigan.”
The march on Friday has been described as a peaceful, family friendly event, but Horazuk notes that the Coalition did hire a security team for any unwanted violence.
Despite a significant Republican majority in D.C., Horazuk says the march will ultimately have an impact. Horazuk told Alpha News “Politicians nor the Supreme Court will save us, it’s people coming together and forcing the change they want, politicians and the Supreme Court respond to the pressures in society. Public sentiment forced the Supreme Court to change their opinion on gay marriage – the constitution didn’t change.”
While Trump will not take office until Friday at noon, many policies and changes he promised to enact have changed immensely since his win in November. One campaign promise that has changed since his election win includes the deportation of undocumented immigrants. While on the campaign, Trump promised to deport all immigrants who were not in the country legally, he has since changed his tune to deporting those who are criminal undocumented immigrants. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn — On the steps of City Hall in Minneapolis, the Resist from Day One Coalition announced it will begin its protest of President-Elect Donald Trump and everything his administration stands for on Friday afternoon after the inauguration.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
